The day my MacBook died

I have a love/hate relationship with Apple products. Be it the iPhone and its Pros and Cons or my love for the MacBook, it seems that just like every other publication, as soon as Apple mentions a new product, we cover it. Sometimes I buy it, sometimes I slam it.

As for the MacBook, I initially got one so that I could go more portable, but after tricking it out it became my primary computer, both when mobile and when using it as a desktop replacement.

The above is the reason why my heart momentarily stopped earlier this week. I was preparing to take the MacBook on the road so I shut down a bunch of applications that were running as a just-in-case precaution. Then I put it to Sleep. Little did I know that it would never wake up. No matter what I tried, including holding the power button for an extended time, trying to boot the MacBook with the battery out and just the laptop plugged into the wall, resetting the PRAM, and just about anything else I could find on the internet, the MacBook just wouldn’t boot up. Instead, I was greeted with the power light and a quick flicker on the screen.

So, what could I do next? FIrst off, in every computer warranty repair case I’ve experienced, there was always a moment of frustration. My biggest concern would normally be data loss but thanks to Time Machine backing up my data every hour, it was the furthest thing from my mind. Instead, I was more concerned with when I could expect my MacBook to work again.

I build my own PCs and have repaired quite a few laptops, but for Apple-oriented repair my first instinct was to call Apple Tech Support. Since my MacBook is within its first year of life, they had me try the same techniques I had performed above, and when all else failed, offered to make me an appointment to see a Genius at the Apple Store. The other option was to have a courier come the next day to pick up my MacBook. I took them up on their offer for the Genius and went to see one at 3pm that day. What happens next is more like a commercial than a real life warranty repair scenario.

I arrive at 3pm and am greeted at the Apple Store. They see my MacBook in hand and ask if I have an appointment. I mention that I do and they tell me that they’ll “radio ahead to let them know I’m coming.” I can see the Genius Bar from where I’m standing but the “radio ahead” is an interesting idea. Then I get near the Genius Bar and a woman holding a MacBook Air says, “come with me, Joel”. Next, she brings me to the Genius Bar and informs the Genius that “Joel is here for his 3pm appointment”.

Meanwhile, the stroll from the front of the store to the back, where the Genius Bar is located, allows me to witness tons of Apple Store employees sitting calmly with potential buyers, explaining all of the built-in applications. Instead of frustration or confusion on the faces of the potential buyers (like I’ve seen countless times in retail environments), I see understanding. I also start to think about getting my wife a MacBook, which is odd considering I’m holding one that just failed after less than a year of use.

Moments after sitting at the Genius Bar, the Genius asks me some questions about what the laptop is doing. I explain and he immediately gets to work trying all of the things that I did. He’s calm and collected and doesn’t seem to want to make it known that he’s a “Genius”, again contrary to my experience in retail stores where the associate always tries to get me to go, “wow! you know a lot!”.

We chat a bit while he tries booting with different RAM, and even booting without the hard drive, and then he says, “ok, there’s only one thing left: the logic board”. He then says, “we’ll replace it here at the store”. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any in stock, but he assured me the replacement would come the next day and he’d get to work on it and probably have my MacBook back to me by end of week.

That was it. No commotion, no negotiation, just calm, cool, and confident. I felt reassured that my MacBook would come back soon and now I wait for its arrival. What I really do find most amazing is how I honestly felt like the Apple employees were just as upset as I was that my MacBook wasn’t working.

My good friend, Judie, over at Gear Diary had a similar Apple Store experience where she ended up walking out with a MacBook Air to tide her over while waiting for a new hard drive to be ordered and then inserted into her MacBook Pro. I walked out with nothing, but I was definitely tempted to buy not only a new MacBook for my wife, but also an Apple TV. I then managed to get out of the store before the happy Apple employees got a hold of me. :-)

My previous laptop repair experience was with Toshiba and the laptop was out of warranty so they recommended I call two places, neither of which ever picked up the phone. In the end I bought the part (a keyboard) online and replaced it myself. I’m not your average laptop owner, though, and most people wouldn’t try their hand at laptop part replacement, so it was refreshing to see how Apple handled my computer’s meltdown.

I’m now typing this on one of the first Mac Minis to hit the streets. I decided to go this route instead of my Vista box since I was able to plug in my Time Machine drive and instantly restore some key files that I needed. So, backup was a success–good to know–and now I await the return of my MacBook.

Update: 48 hours later I received a call from the Apple Store. My MacBook was ready. When I went to pick it up, I wasn’t greeted by a smiling greeter, nor personally escorted to the Genius Bar. I was however greeted by the Genius, who remembered me, but not the issue. He then typed a few things into his keyboard and moments later a woman came out of the back room with my MacBook in hand. I signed for it and then powered it up. The Genius then leaned over and asked me to verify the serial number, to prevent me from having issues if I were to call about support later, just in case it somehow got changed–thanks for asking! All was well with the MacBook and I went on my way.

I’m now using it more than week later and it seems to work better than ever. I can only assume that whatever problem caused my logic board to malfunction may have been slowly tearing away at my MacBook’s performance. Regardless, I’m a happy Mac user once again.

Speak Your Mind

macmaniac

Great news for someone who is under warranty. Wait till it isn’t under warranty and all you hear is you should buy a new mac, or your machine is clearly abused your warranty is void. Yes that machine had a special program to repair a defect we manufactured into your mac but I am sorry that program expired after three years and now you need to buy a new mac as we will not honor that repair. Or the classic your mac is old and we don’t carry any parts for it anymore and no one else does either you should get a new one. All those calm understanding sales staff “helping” customers… Come on people wake up stop drinking the APPLE Kool-Aid. How do you think they can keep stores open in PRIME locations with tons of Employees to “HELP” you. Real help would be lowering your prices on repair parts so that people did not have to replace a machine because the prices were so high as to make you a fool to fix it. Shame on you Apple you may think you can fool the people but some of us have your business model figured out, it will catch up with you.

jsol1337

I had a similar problem with my MacBook…only mine did boot without the battery installed. It turns out the the battery had gone bad, and no power was getting through it. The key difference is that I bought my MacBook refurbished through Apple.com…and it was not under warrenty. I walked into the local Apple Store (which is actually fairly small), and they promptly greeted me. I sat down at the genius bar, and started explaining the issue. The genius then grabbed a brand new battery, and placed it in my MacBook. It booted up without a hitch. I started getting out my wallet, and she said "is there anything else you need?" I said no, and she said, "well, have a nice day". That was it. Free battery for an out of warrenty, refurb 1st-gen MacBook. It fekt like they genuinly cared that my laptop was not functioning. I was so impressed, and will buy nothing but Apple laptops from now on.

atmabq

A couple of years ago I dumped a cup of coffee on the keyboard of my two year old Powerbook G4. I had also dropped the laptop soon after I bought it and that had left a good dent in the corner of the case. Soon after the coffee spill a few of the keys on the keyboard quit working, though everything else worked fine.

Since I had Applecare and since the closet Apple store was over 400 miles away, I called Apple support and described the problem (neglecting to mention the coffee spill). The next day I received a shipping box via FedEx with instructions on sending the laptop in for repair. The day after shipping it to the service center I received a call from a service rep saying that something had been spilled in the laptop and that it was obvious that it had been dropped, and that it would need a new logic board and hard drive and that the work would not be covered under warranty.

Since the estimate was expensive, I decided not to get it fixed and asked them to ship it back. When it got it back the next day (!) The non-working keys had been fixed anyway. The laptop continued to work for another year and a half before the hard drive finally gave out. I doubt that any other laptop manufacturer would have fixed a similar problemâ€”and they would probably have charged to ship my laptop back, as well.